Oilers News

Oilers Fantasy Hockey Forecast - 02/08/2011

After beginning the three-game road trip with consecutive losses to St. Louis and Columbus, the Oilers then traveled to Nashville to conclude the swing before returning home.

Looking to salvage a victory and bring some good vibes aboard the team’s charter for the long flight home, Edmonton stepped up and provided one of the most complete team efforts of the season to emerge with a 4-0 win at Bridgestone Arena.

One player in particular surfaced as the hero, providing his club with the opportunity to locate its offensive spark.

"He might have to play again on Wednesday." -- Head Coach Tom Renney on Devan Dubnyk’s shutout performance Monday night in Nashville.

No more than one hour following the completion of tomorrow's game vs. Chicago, the salaries of this week’s highlighted players will be amended, while last week’s players (Eberle, Gagner and Jones) will be reverted back to their standard cap-hits.

Devan Dubnyk put an emphatic stamp on the recent road trip with a 37-save performance vs. Nashville to record his first career NHL shutout. If you’re scoring at home (which you should be), Dubnyk’s performance earned him 47 Fantasy points and the best single-game goaltending output of the season.

Dubnyk cleaned up in all statistical categories: 37 saves, the shutout, the win, and was named one of the game’s three stars. His performance could not have yielded a better result.

With Nikolai Khabibulin enduring a tough stretch in which he’s lost his last 13 starts, Dubnyk is looking to grab the reigns and establish himself as the team’s new number one netminder. With further opportunity sure to come as the season winds down, look for the rookie goaltender to make an impact.

Naturally, the cost of success is high. For the next week, Dubnyk will now come at the cost of $4 million; the same number that Khabibulin has earned all season.

Theo Peckham is consistently featured in the Fantasy Hockey Forecast due to his rock-solid defensive play. With an incredibly low salary structure providing you with the opportunity to include Peckham as an afterthought, wrinkles needed to be added frequently to quell the ease of his addition to your game-night roster.

Of course, those wrinkles revolve entirely around cost. It’s time for another raise to make his addition a more challenging decision.

Much like Dubnyk, Peckham completed the road trip with a tremendous performance vs. Nashville. The team as a whole stepped up its collective physical play, but Peckham again emerged as a leader in this regard.

Of the team's 20 hits, he was able to accumulate six of his own, increasing his season-total to an impressive 144. That number has him sitting 14th among the NHL’s hit leaders.

Hits are only part of the equation, however. Blocked shots and an ever-increasing plus/minus have helped the rugged blueliner establish himself as one of the game’s most valuable players. Peckham completed Monday’s game with 22 Fantasy points, which was the fifth-best total on the team despite not recording a single point.

Get Peckham into your lineup. Higher cost or not, he’s worth the addition.

Finding chemistry has been the biggest challenge for rookie sensation Linus Omark this season. Now having found a comfortable position on a line with Sam Gagner and fellow countryman Magnus Paajarvi, the search for chemistry is a thing of the past.

Omark had a quiet finish to the road trip in Nashville, but showcased a terrific performance Saturday night in Columbus. In two nearly identical plays, Omark picked up a pair of assists to lead the team’s offensive charge in what could have been an Oilers victory.

Confidence and skill have never been an issue for the dynamic Swede, so the infusion of some additional familiarity between his linemates should help to spark an even greater surge of production. With the team returning home to begin a six-game homestand, look for Omark to continue flashing his hot stick.